7 Tips To Maintain Your Weight At Menopause
Hormonal changes that occur during menopause can cause weight gain in many women. What steps should be taken to live better at this stage of life? In the following, we offer you 7 tips to maintain your weight at menopause.
Reducing the production of estrogen and progesterone that occurs at menopause alters the activity of metabolism. Consequently, in addition to increasing the tendency to accumulate fat, there is also a loss of muscle mass.
This situation not only causes a change in the number of kilograms, but also increases the risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders that reduce the quality of life, as indicated by a study conducted by Revista Médica de Chile.
However, there is a way to counteract the effects of menopause, at least to some extent. This becomes possible when you improve your lifestyle before going through these changes. For this reason, we want to share some useful tips that you can put into practice to fully live this stage of life, without fear of suffering the effects of overweight.
7 tips to maintain your weight at menopause
1. Increase diuretic intake
Although the following foods have diuretic properties, they are not as effective as drugs of this type. However, you should never take over-the-counter medications, as they can have significant side effects.
Some important natural diuretic options are:
- Birch: According to a study published in Natural Product Research, the extracts obtained from its leaves have diuretic properties.
- Eggplant: Its diuretic effects are confirmed in a 2016 study published in Emergent Life Sciences Research.
- Dandelion: This property has been scientifically confirmed in a study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
- Green tea: It is one of the best known diuretics due to its properties confirmed, for example, in a study published in Chinese Medicine.
- Pumpkin: Research published in the Journal of Food Science and Technology shows that pumpkin has a diuretic effect.
- Watermelon (with proven effects, but not in humans)
- Pineapple
- Asparagus
- Parsley
Despite significant changes in the body during menopause, exercise continues to be one of the best tools to have a healthy and stable body weight. This is confirmed, for example, by research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine .
When you exercise, your metabolism is stimulated to keep up and provide the necessary energy. As a result, calories are burned. In this way, along with a healthy diet, physical activity is essential for maintaining a stable body weight.
In addition, exercise has other benefits, such as reducing muscle mass loss, which is an indicator of health as you age, according to MedlinePlus.
Sport also helps maintain bone density at appropriate levels. This is essential for the prevention of osteoporosis, which is more prevalent at menopause, as indicated by research published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal.
Oats are a food that provides essential nutrients and helps keep the body active and full of energy. One of its benefits is the satiety it causes, which is analyzed in a study published in the Nutrition Review in 2016. For this reason, you can use it as breakfast to avoid eating more food than necessary.
Oats can also help you control your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, according to information reported by the Spanish Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics . As if that wasn’t enough, oats can be cooked in many ways!
